Kitchen Floor decision help please

5 years ago

Hello,

Our Southern California home was built in 1950. We are doing a full kitchen and laundry remodel. The kitchen is in the middle of the house, and has no windows. It flows into the family room. There are 2 doors from the kitchen into the adjacent dining room, and one door from the other side of the kitchen into the laundry room. The flooring in the kitchen and family room will be replaced, and also the laundry room. The dining room flooring is original 2 inch wide oak strips and is in good shape, so will not be replaced. The laundry room floor will either be a ceramic print or vinyl sheet print (and we can close off this space with a pocket door). I wish to put some type of hardwood or engineered flooring into the family room. But I am in a dilemma for what to do about the kitchen. We were originally thinking to have the kitchen floor be the same as the family room floor and just have it flow together. But then the designer mentioned cork flooring as an alternative for the kitchen. The kitchen is on a raised foundation. (Family room was added later and is on concrete slab). We are in our early 60's and in good shape, but lately I am prone to dropping things due to hand weakness. No pets, no kids.

Plan to stay in this house as long as possible. I've seen the luxury vinyl planks and don't love it. I want my once-in-a-lifetime dream kitchen to look beautiful but not have to fuss over it excessively. I need about 100 sq feet of flooring for the kitchen, which will be a farmhouse style. Assume price is unimportant (of course it is but need all the facts!) Appreciate your comments on wood vs cork, and having so many different types of flooring all next to each other. I am leaning towards an engineered hardwood for both kitchen and FR, if anyone can recommend an excellent quality type and place to buy I would appreciate the info! Also, do they come in narrower planks? I want to minimize the grooves in the hardwood which trap dirt. Many thanks in advance!

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Comments (3)

jerzeegirl (FL zone 9B)
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Whatever you do, don't do tile! I am a fairly active older person in pretty good shape (yoga, walking, etc) and if I spend more than an hour in the kitchen standing on tile my body starts to hurt! This started happening last year and I realize it's because of the tile (on slab) I am standing on. If I could do it over again, I would either do engineered wood like the rest of the house or Marmoleum, which I have a "thing" for. The hardwood I have in the other room has grooves but they do serve a purpose which is if you get grains of sand for example they go into the groove and prevent abrasion of the planks themselves. It's like a little "collection area" for dirt. The dirt vacuums out quite easily. The engineered hardwood I have is Mirage and it has held up well over the past 7 years. There are nicks and scratches from use, but that is the beauty of hardwood. If you buy good quality hardwood floors, they have a couple of sandings in them and I believe they can have many many screenings.
wan24 thanked jerzeegirl (FL zone 9B)
wan24
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you jerzeegirl, that is one reason why we are avoiding tile.

I may have already answered my own question because I think I just decided that engineered wood will be our best option overall. Would prefer narrower planks, 3 inches or less if available. If anyone can recommend brands of high quality I would appreciate that! Or will still consider cork.
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I'm not a professional, so this is just a personal opinion. I am learing of laminate in a kitchen just because of the water issue and the fact I have children, not sure if this is your situation also. Between the 2 you are considering I would suggest vinyl since it stands up to more, especially water!! We are putting in tile but our flooring store did show us vinyl that looks VERY much like tile, so you have that option too. GL
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I like the Himalayan Slate and Labrador because they seem to tie everything together. Have you seen cate1337's kitchen? She used a Formica soapstone (laminate) -- cannot now recall which one, but before I saw your proposed samples that was my first thought. It's similar to the Slate but not as busy. I have a highly figured countertop (Calacatta marble) and I'll tell you, having too much pattern can make it harder to keep clean -- it's hard to see everything! At least, this is my husband's excuse .... But it is also true. This can be a good or a bad thing -- I think my countertop and the most beautiful one ever (!), so on the one hand it's a good thing. On the other, I really like having a clean countertop, and the fact that I can't so easily see the crumbs is a bummer. You have already done a beautiful job on your kitchen. Congratulations!
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How shallow is your shallow pantry? 12"? With overlay doors, that makes it 13" deep. If you're using 24" deep cabinets, your island will be 27" wide, not 24" because of the counter overhang (standard 1.5" on all sides). Even a CD fridge will extend beyond the counters 3-4". A standard depth (SD) fridge can extend into the aisle as much as 10" beyond your perimeter counters. You wrote that you don't like to shop. Are you okay with the reduced storage space a CD fridge offers? So for your 12' wide room, you need to factor in a 27" island, a 13" deep pantry cab, a 30" fridge (inc. box, door required air space behind it, not handles) to know how much aisle space you'll really have. 144" (12' width) 30" (CD fridge, with required air space behind it and door, not handles) 27" island 13" pantry cab (12" depth plus 1" for door) ---- 74" left over for aisles or 37" for each aisle That is less than NKBA recs of 42" aisles for a one-cook kitchen. Some GWers do have narrower aisles but generally only one aisle is as little as 36" with other aisles wider, which is actually in line with NKBA specs (at least one aisle should be 42"). Additionally, it could be tricky maneuvering the fridge in and out of its cab. If you end up with a standard depth (SD) fridge, an island plan won't work. To give you enough room in front of the fridge, you'd have to shrink the aisle between island and pantry cabs to about 29". Before you decide on a lay-out, I think you really need to determine how much storage you need (esp. how large a pantry) and what type of fridge you will get.
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Okay, so this is how exhausted I am. I am just home from work (almost the last day of school - yay!) and I'm skimming the topics while putting my tired feet up before starting dinner. "Oh", I say to myself, "someone is trying to decide on bathroom tile just like me". It's only when I click on the thread that I realize it is me! I just read somewhere that each tile can weigh as much as 3 pounds. Therefore, shipping is going to be fairly costly too. What if I just do one bathroom with the encaustic (possibly rug style) and do the other bathroom in hardwood? The hardwood is covered under the insurance. Do people put hardwood in a bathroom or is that just asking for trouble? It is site finished oak. If I do use the encaustic, it will definitely be of the neutral variety. The middle pic that tibbrix posted above is my inspiration bathroom and the one that got me searching for the tile. The cement tile shop . com makes one that looks pretty identical. Sorry I haven't replied to each post. I have read them and appreciate all opinions - even those that don't like it. It helps to realize it may not be everyone's cup of tea. Resale is always an issue at some point, but we are going on the assumption that this is our forever house. I'm off to read some designer and contractor emails and answer a ton of their questions. Right now I'm wishing I was little less of a decor addict and could just say, "oh, just go ahead and do what you think is best."
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Kristin S
5 years ago
I would go with engineered. You should be able to find narrower planks, and will probably save money, as they're not as trendy at the moment. For quality you'll want to watch how thick the wear layer is, which is the top layer of the actual hardwood. Many are 2mm or less, which means they may not be able to be refinished, and I would worry about dropping a heavy object and having it break through to the wood below. When shopping for engineered wood I looked for 4mm wear layer or more, which should allow for a couple of refinishes. Others may have suggestions of brands - I just went to the showroom and started looking at the edges to see which had thicker top layers and went from there. I found most of the salespeople remarkably unknowledgeable about which brands to consider, as it seems most customers ask only about the looks, not the quality.

Kahrs would be one brand to consider. https://www.kahrs.com/en-us/

Mercier would be another I might look at: https://mercier-wood-flooring.com/en_us
wan24 thanked Kristin S

Kitchen Floor decision help please

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jerzeegirl (FL zone 9B)

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jerzeegirl (FL zone 9B)

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